at our regular time. greta wire has an open thread. tell me what you think nevada, florida, politics. good night, see you tomorrow night. is. >> shep: welcome to hannity tonight. we are monitoring all the news coming out of florida. but first, on the special edition from hannity. you'll hear from supporters of romney and gingrich campaigns and much more and alan west and short time ago, former massachusetts governor mitt romney was declared the winner of the tonight's primary. he has addressed his supporters in tampa. newt gingrich came in secondly. rick santorum followed in third place trailed by congressman ron paul in fourth. joining me in studio with analysis. pat kadel and ed rollins. what is fascinate becoming. go to south carolina, gingrich is losing and double digits and

then he turns it around. same thing for romney. debates a big factor? >> debates a big factor. romney spent a huge amount of money. gingrich wasn't in the resource game. the debates matter. we're having huge swings even inside the republican party that i don't even remember. >> shep: you can go back throughout history. kennedy, carter. >> one big difference, romney has put together a great campaign. two elements in the campaign, one is a great candidate and one a great organization. newt has not yet put the organization together. he has good people but not functioning on all cylinders, i think you saw that this week. romney campaign went out executed, tremendous resources, financial resources but they made it work. >> shep: let me put the question

differently. >> sean: in gingrich had the same resources? >> there are two elements that broke the back tonight. one he did very badly among women. he didn't do well among hispanic voters and senior citizens, those three groups was big difference. >> sean: what we were talking about, the amount of money, the money well spent but this is defining state. how much momentum does it carry for romney? >> the next contest he would lose by double-digits. we're going to be the down period and few romney states. what is interesting to me is that this change in the electorate partly was newt became the issue here. i think he lot traction in these debates with big message which is big ideas, big message that carried him. he got into the negative contest with romney and their money and

it didn't work. >> sean: governor pa eleven says she wants the vetting process to continue. one thing that is really clear. you have to give credit to romney and santorum tonight. after the great debate performances by newt, they stepped up and they had to step up. >> at their game. >> sean: they brought their "a" game to the debates. i thought that was a key moment here in florida. you know what, they didn't step up. what i'm suggesting that was a key moment for both of them. >> newt tried to be presidential. his daughters and wife. you got to look presidential. truth of the matter what benefited him in south carolina he was mean and tough. people said this is kind of guy we want to take on obama. having two debates affected him and not having the campaign to follow. >> expectations were so high because of the south carolina debates, the lobbyist guys really hurt him. >> sean: and line by romney in a

speech. >> a lot of democrats are looking at this, you are a democrat. this competitive battle is going to make us weak. it's not dividing us, it is preparing us. in that sense, this is what whoever the nominee certainly mitt romney is looking good tonight, he is going to be need prepare for a billion dollar ad negative campaign coming his way. >> they started it. i heard jim clyburn talking about cayman islands and swiss bank accounts. by the way, i think the next month is a critical month because romney has to face the attacks from obama. he has to solve the problem which he is not doing well with people who feel economically depressed or challenged. he needs to do that. >> he said in the speech, he was in his game.

he basically felt good about going. >> gingrich is going to get back in the game he has to redefine himself. >> sean: he went after obama hard in this speech. if you didn't turn things around one term proposition and we're here to collect? >> i think that is good point. that energized all republicans. electability was important part of the game tonight. people want to see who is going to be tough against obama. >> his personal negatives, the level has reached so early has been harmful. in florida bad state for obama, suddenly romney is winning big, he has fallen 8 points behind president obama. >> there was a poll out, one-point race. good to see you. for more reaction to tonight's

primary results we go to charles krauthammer, good to see you. >> let's get your broad overview of the results tonight. >> it is what we expected. it's not that different from what we expected. it tells us how important debates but the moment that determine these elections. look at south carolina and florida results. it's almost like a controlled experiment. in both, romney hugely out spends gingrich. in both gingrich gets the need first endorsement from mr. and mrs. adelsorn. they have two debates primary on the week in thursday. what happened in south carolina? gingrich had the moment and those two debates, juan williams

moment and john king. then he had a 30-point swing from 20 behind to 10 ahead. in the florida debates he was flat. he was on the defensive. romney was on attack, santorum was strong and that swung him all the way back. it's remarkable how much the debates are a factor and the money advantage had the same advantage in south carolina, it had to do with the moments the gingrich campaign, it was revived on the debate and now it's on debate. but because he doesn't have the debate until the 22nd of february, he is going to be out there for a while. >> sean: i totally agree with that natural si. you add the money, money was a factor and advantage for romney in south carolina. what is fascinating, too, you have been following politics for a long time. what is amazing is the turnaround, south carolina, a

double-digit deficit into a double deficit win. same thing for romney in florida. he was back against the wall that gingrich had and newt had coming out of south carolina. he was able to turn. that it was the moments, defining moments these debates. in one sense you got to give them all credit because thought they rose to the occasion. >> i thought was interesting was the speeches of the top three tonight. they were all perfectly in character. i thought romney was santorum was pell put together and newt was most interesting. romney i thought was uninspired. he had a few good lines but was slow and steady, hammering on obama. wife's introduction was always the best. she is best asset. santorum had a well explained rationale.

he was out there in nevada. he basically says i am the guy to rise above the gingrich too food fight. i am true conservative. i am one that is not going to end up to be the issue in the campaign implying that, of course, gingrich and romney were. he has an opening in missouri in a week. it doesn't have any delegates but gingrich is not on the ballot. that is one chance to go up against romney in an important state. the state that most representatives of the whole country, missouri. he is now ahead. if he beats romney one on one essentially in missouri, i think he stakes a claim that could be the anti-romney. then you've got gingrich who i thought gave the most interesting and best speech of the night. he was so good on his feet. he had two parts. first part was positioning himself. he went after elite media

washington establishment, wall street. he is the guy, he is the insurgent. then he has very effective on substance, when he pushed all of the keystone and obama and energy. he talked about the czars implying obama executive overreach the arrogance of this administration. he talked about the war on -- i think it's an issue that is going to be extremely important. these do with regulations of obamacare. then as always he had one sour note. that was i thought at the end where he said i pledge my life, my fortune and my sense of honor. of course, last line is last line of declaration of independence but the people that signed that document, had they not succeeded they would have been hanged. if newt doesn't succeed he returns to k-street.

there is a little bit of difference. but i think each spoke in character very interesting speeches tonight. >> sean: let me go through a few of the lines. when gingrich defined himself as clear conservative versus a massachusetts moderate, 46 states to go, people power, defeating money power. he talked about extending over six months. there is comparison. romney tried to unite the party and then he went after obama. we're here to collect. this is a one-term proposition. talks about jobs lost, housing market. he talked about we need someone to take responsibility and not excuses. lead and follow and get out of the way. really challenging obama and trying to set him apart as the candidate. does he get momentum from that and gingrich could make the case that there are 46 states to go?

>> considering the job that gingrich had to do, he was speaking after historic thumping i thought it was better one and he put it together rather well. by going after obama and going after elites but it works really well. romney had some good lines. i think he sort of said, look, i'm the winner here. i won in florida. i'm really going to speak as the guy who doesn't even have to so much acknowledge my internal opposition. he tried to speak as the guy who was already the nominee. i thought what was wrong with his speech, his basic argument, if you are listening to the argument, i'm a businessman. i know how to create jobs. trust me. i know how to start a business. i'll strengthen the american economy. that is not a terribly strong argument.

in the absence -- he didn't make a conservative case. he didn't have an argument on exactly what he is going to do. you aren't going to have that happen in a victory speech but he has to give a people out there somehow. >> if he gave one like mitch daniels which is concise and smart and i thought elegant the defense of the conservative critique of obama. conservative agenda for fixing america, if romney could memorize that speech, he would be president of the united states. he just hasn't been able to do that. he is basically selling himself. gingrich i thought is capable of giving a speech with contours and giving on a night where he got really whacked, he spoke well of him. he has to show that he can win

between now and march 6th. i'm not sure he has a place he could do that. >> sean: thanks for being with us. >> and ahead, oklahoma congressman j.c. wat sts with us. >> thank you. >> sean: you were supporting newt gingrich. your analysis of the night? >> we knew that florida would not be easy. we thought going in we had a pretty good ground game which i think we did. i think we outspent? 13 to one. you need you need air attack with your ground attack. i think the speaker's position is extremely well. i think he probably becomes the target of the homicidal folks and the santorum folks.

dr. krauthammer mentioned that santorum had not been in the food fight. he has not had a win since iowa. i suspect he'll get in the food fight. i suspect it again but the speaker has a good record to run on. as the old saying goes, they can lie louder but we can tell the truth longer. i think he'll continue to do that. we're ready for the balance of the battle. >> sean: what about the carpet bombing issue. it's been pretty contentious down there. at moments you are wondering if we're going to put somebody in and put everybody in neutral corners for a while? >> you don't like to see that. again, i think we saw in iowa that works when newt had about 50% of the negative ads running against him. we saw it in south carolina but we had very good ground game. we saw it again in florida.

so he is kind of the focus of these attacks. again, i recite what my dad used to say is, dogs don't bark at parked cars. the speaker is a threat and speaker to santorum and has been to governor romney. he will continue to be under attack. i think he has a balanced budget entitlement reform pay down the public debt, helped create 11 million jobs as a speaker. only time in my lifetime we had a balanced budget is when newt gingrich was speaker of the house. >> sean: what do you make of the demographic shift. i went back to south carolina, looked at demographics. he won married women by ten points. a lot can happen obviously in this race in a ten-day period of time. what do you think the shift is

and can you apply it to other states coming up? >> i haven't seen the demographics or the numbers of the demographics from the florida election, but i think people saw through the negative ads in south carolina. we felt like the clock started in iowa but the game would begin for us for the speaker there in south carolina. it proved to be accurate. we'll look at the game film, as they say, and see what is there and see how it all unfolded tonight. again, we think going into super tuesday we're going to be pretty good. we think there is some shots in nevada and arizona. we think we can be competitive there. that will give us a boost going into super tuesday. we feel pretty good about that.

oklahoma is in that super tuesday race. >> sean: you could carry anybody over the goal line in oklahoma? >> it might get a little heavy. [ laughter ] >> but the speaker is looking forward to it. >> sean: watch me throw out and give me report on my arm and my throw. j.c., great to see you. >> coming up romney campaign supporter florida congressman, connie mack will join us and later, alan west he sparked a controversy this week when he told top democrats to take their left leaning agenda and get the hell out of the united states. we'll check in with him as the special florida primary edition of hannity continues straight of hannity continues straight

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as this primary unfolding the other party has been watching. and they like to comfort themselves that a competitive campaign will leave us divided and weak. but i got news for them. a competitive primary doesn't divide us, it prepares us and we will win. >> when we gather back in tampa seven months for our convention. [ cheers and applause ]

>> ours will be united party with a winning ticket for america! [ cheers and applause ] >> sean: that was the winner of the florida primary speaking a shorts time ago. joining me a supporter of the romney campaign, florida congressman, he is running for the senate. connie mack, how are you? >> how are you doing tonight. >> sean: i like that line. its competitive line it got pretty contentious down there? >> i think mitt is right. if you look back at the beginning of this week, he went out on the first debate in florida, and he stood his ground. he talked to the people of the state of florida and said look it's time we create jobs in america. it's time we respect individuals and got government bureaucrats. he took his case very strongly to the people of the state of

florida and they responded very well to that. >> sean: i would agree, but i would also argue that there was a lot of negative ads that were run down there. a lot of robo calls, upwards $17 million, term was used by newt gingrich carpet bombing by the romney campaign. i agree with you, debate performance he had two good debates down there but there is a lot of negativity. how does he unite the party at the end of the process. >> in a campaign that is very difficult because a lot of times you are talking about friends. this is kind of in the family. newt in a lot of times came unhinged and really went after mitt romney. two of them, some people was steel on steel. that is what happens in a primary. i can tell you this.

as republicans we will be united behind our candidates. i hope will be mitt romney. we'll be united behind our candidate because we can't afford of four more years of barack obama. >> sean: i agree with the last line. newt was clear, 46 states to go. people power will defeat money power in the next six months. newt was unhinged. let me give a moment of one of ads, a romney ad against newt gingrich. >> newt gingrich was ronald reagan's vice president. >> i worked with ronald reagan. >> gingrich exaggerated dropping reagan's name 50 times but in his diary he mentioned gingrich only once. he said it would triple our defense patrol program. reagan rejected his idea on leadership and character, newt gingrich is no ronald reagan.

>> sean: oakland the romney pac there. pretty harsh criticisms that he resigned in disgrace. said all these things that were said throughout the campaign. you are not going to deny that mitt romney was very aggressive against newt, are you? >> no. i think both campaigns were very aggressive. i wouldn't say that is not true. to say it was just mitt romney is false. newt ran around the state -- okay. >> sean: go ahead. >> i said newt ran around the state saying all kinds of things about mitt romney. first debate it was too quiet. second debate it was too loud. he attacks on romney character. this is a man who has been very open, very ethical. someone who is honest we can look up toned to and be proud

of. newt spent a lot of time i think kind of flailing on the different attacks he was on. >> sean: it was interesting to me in governor romney's speech i liked a lot of lines he used. leadership is about taking responsibility, it's not about excuses. lead and follow and get out of the way and time for obama to get out of away. we're here to collect but if he didn't fix the economy this is a one term proposition. clearly governor romney's mind he was laying out the foundation for a general election campaign against barack obama -- no? >> absolutely. i think governor romney understands that we have to get america off the road to greece band back to the road to prosperity. he knows how do it. he did it in his personal life. he has done it in his business life. he did it as a governor. he has been successful whether it's the olympics. this is a guy who is a winner. he knows that jobs are created

in the private sector. jobs aren't created by government. i think he can bring a voice and a direction to america that will put us back on the road to prosperity. >> sean: how is your senate race going, congressman? >> things are looking great, sean. things are unfolding and we've got great poll numbers. we raised a good amount of money. things are changing all the time. we're very happy with the direction that things are going right now. >> sean: congressman connie mack thanks for being with us. >> still ahead, bob beckel and great american panel. but first, alan west had very strong words over the weekend for the president and his democratic allies. he will be my special guest as the special edition of hannity continues and much more straight

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>> sean: welcome back to specialigs of hannity as we analyze the results out of florida in the primary tonight. first, retired colonel on until adam west has come under sharp criticism for comments he made about president obama and democratic allies. >> take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneur will and spirit of the american people somewhere else. you can take it to europe, you can take it to the bottom of sea you can take it to the north pole but get the hell out of the united states of america. >> sean: here to explain, florida congressman, alan west, good to see you? >> good to see you. >> sean: some clarification, take your message and get the hell out of here. were you talking about them getting out of here or the message getting out of here? >> the message. it's the message, sean.

i think what you see is the liberals understanding that someone called them out. when you look what is happening in this country with the debt, the deficit, the cbo coming out and saying once again we're going to have a triple dollar deficit in 2012, fourth straight year, unemployment may be going back up to 8.9% by the end of the year. these are serious situations that are going and last week, state of the union address you heard the president say nothing about the debt, nothing about deficit or dodd-frank or the failed stimulus package. nee we need to call the people out who we are. we are now 1007 days without a budget in the united states of america. >> sean: what is amazing to me, i remember the bush years. we followed a lot of comments by top democrats, al gore saying george bush betrayed his country candidate obama calling bush patriotic and all this.

here you make these comments, you would think the world never heard a controversial statement from many democrat ever. what do you make of the double standard? >> it's a double standard. it's hypocrisy that is truly laughable. it's amazing to me that i think liberals and democrats expect conservatives to just be punching bags. that day is over. we're going to stand up and let our voices be heard. we're going to fight for this constitutional republic. >> sean: where do you stand with your seat and some people, i know you said earlier you are going to run for a different district? >> for whatever reason, florida legislature was controlled by the super, we went to dsms plus district you have given 5-6%

registration advantage to democrats of them drew in more democrats into the district i represent. you are talking about 57% democratic district. so the district that was newly drawn north of us which encompasses about 20% of the current district i represent. we made the decision to move to that district. it's a good plus one district and very fair district. i can't understand for the life of me the legislature of the state of florida would have done what they did. >> sean: was it done for political pay back? >> i have no idea. i think you would have to ask the people up there in the house and the senate why they drew the map as such. they were constituents that drew maps for them that met all the legal guidelines that would have been a competitive district. >> sean: what do you make the results of the florida tonight? what was happening on the ground. a lot of negativity. read my twitter account and it

seems like this particular moment in time, this is a process, romney spo supporters hate newt and newt supporters hate romney. >> i think during the florida primary, we're going to have a chinese oil rig put in place about 60 miles off of florida. we had a hearing yesterday transportation hearing, no one is going to talk about that the economic if we were to have a deepwater horizon right off the coast. they need to do contrast and president obama and failures and especially in florida we would have higher unemployment, higher than the average. we need to allow the people to make decisions who they think will be best to go into the arena against president obama. >> sean: adam west, i know you

have a lot of supporters out there. i don't think you'll have that much trouble in the district. we'll be watching the race very closely. time to check in with greta van susteren. she has sneak peek of what is coming up. how are you? i am stealing your time slot. you pushed everything back an hour. my time slot was stolen. >> greta: we got a big show. what we did on the record. but senator santorum and speaker's daughter and rick cline tipped me off to the news. so i'm going to let rick talk about that today. >> sean: are you going to make me watch. >> greta: it belongs to rick cline. i didn't get it. >> sean: you can tell me. send me an e-mail. >> greta: here it is. here. >> sean: i can't even see myself

my eyes are so bad. greta, we'll be watching. 21 short minutes. beckel, pulling on his, what do you call those things, suspenders, dying to get back on here. our great american panel is next. [ male announcer ] montgomery and abiil haggins

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>> i think it's really interesting. this the most diverse state yet. fourth largest state in the nation. tonight's election was important and romney had a good showing. that sends signals. he won big counties and the counties that are going to matter in november. >> big win for romney i don't think it's the end of the world for gingrich, it's two-man race but like he says, 46 to go. a lot of delegates. nobody has a hundred delegates yet. not even one-tenth of the way. >> sean: that was interesting. they moved up florida. was winner take all. which they lost half of their delegates. what about the case that senator santorum was making, it's got to be about the issues on the -- i'm the conservative alternative? >> i think santorum is doing one of two things. he is either trying to position himself as, hey, there is no mud

on me and i'm a bona fide conservative and that is going to propel him in the race. the other thing that crossed my mind, he was really talking about newt criticizing romney. the thought occurred to me, is he trying to position for a vice presidential candidacy there. >> it's got to be roub yeo. >> roub yeo is not eligible. >> 10% of the republican vote because he is not a natural born citizen. we bev through that with obama. >> sean: i don't believe that. >> i don't think that is going to work. >> you republicans worry about that. what struck me, first of all the amount of money spent in this primary was probably more record setting than not. romney was in early. he spent a lot of money. half million people voted and got to them and gingrich was in

no position to do that. newt found out that florida is not south carolina. northern part of the florida but the rest is diverse like ohio, most diverse state in the country. the thing i walked away, hop of the people voted didn't like their choices. >> sean: it was 39 to be exact but who is counting. >> but romney performed well with the people he needed to. he performed well with women and in other areas. that speaks a lot to his ability as a candidate. >> sean: ten days ago it was the opposite. >> you take him out of south carolina and he wasn't bruised. he came out and stronger and he.... >> sean: south carolina newt was down double digits and came back and won by double digits. romney is down by double digits at the start of ten day period

and he turns it around with two good debated performances. >> $17 million. >> sean: i would agree with that certainly i think if newt had the same debate performances i am not sure the results would have been the same. >> it would have been closer but you can't turn on the television in florida without seeing some of it. ten days prior to south carolina coming in fourth place, he wins south carolina, ten days exactly later he comes in second by a big margin to romney. what does that say? >> it's still up in the air. >> sean: it's always been historically one by will win new hampshire and iowa and one will win south carolina and the race is over. not the same anymore. >> when you took florida, it put mccain over the top after he won south carolina. what newt's problem is with all

presidential candidates, it's not the ego that drives people out of the race. the problem with newt's ego is cashing checks in his bank account that he doesn't have. maybe he raised a lot of money but it's money that drives you out of race. candidates are personally responsible for their money. >> you can go for 46 states and you have to have the money and operation to do that but right now newt doesn't have it. >> there is something about florida that i haven't heard anybody mention, there is two floridas and there the rural and urban florida. newt won all the rural counties and these won them substantially but there is not enough people in their areas. it does suggest he is going to do well in other southern states, in rural america. >> sean: we have governor palin on last night.

she said this is about g.o.p. establishment versus the tea party manifest foe, independent americans who don't like the politics of personal destruction. we can sit here all day long and armchair quarterback and say the negative ads have to stop. the reason is they are running, they work? >> exactly. they work. >> it was money well spent. >> is in establishment versus tea party? >> i think romney is clearly the establishment candidate. look at the people who are supporting mitt romney. it's karl rove and people that are supporting newt gingrich, it's sarah palin. >> also the tea party, one of your biggest elected officials in south carolina is senator demint stayed out of the race. i'm wondering, you have to tell me, how united is the tea party

behind newt. >> tea party is not united around any candidate. think newt got help late from tea party activists. the leadership of the tea party movement can't tell the grassroots what to do. >> sean: how dangerous is this divide? it's palpable. somebody supports romney. they are not liking gingrich or they don't like romney supporters. it was bad when obama and clinton, they played the race card. >> but not like this. it was strung out a long time and they were very close in delegate counts. you have two titanic campaigns running each other, you have one that is clearly well funded. he has to walk into caucus states and then got to go to michigan. >> sean: nevada and michigan, romney.

>> in any caucus states and it takes organization and that costs money. >> michigan has romney history. >> but in the rural states, small towns, everybody is big on newt. that will make a difference. >> newt could sustain stai in, it's a beauty confess in missouri. there is good microcosm of republican america. if newt can do well. >> one big opportunity and he is not on the ballot. >> i just like to stir it up. >> sean: we have to take a quick break. more analysis with our great, great, great american panel right after the break. ♪ [ telephone rings ]

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>> sean: great american panel. to be fair earlier in the show i brought up one of mitt romney's ads that was run in florida talking about the tone of the debate. let's take a look that newt gingrich ran in there. >> what kind of man would

mislead and deceive just to win an election? this man would. mitt romney. romney's ad has always voted republican we had the opportunity but in 1992 massachusetts primary, he had the chance to vote for george h.w. bush or pat buchanan but he voted for a liberal democrat instead. his investments in fannie mae and freddie mac were in a blind trust but as reported romney earns tens of thousands of dollars not in a blind trust. >> sean: so he ran one of romney adds and gingrich ads, romney had more money. >> obviously this ad didn't work. look at the results tonight. that speaks for itself. >> sean: i'll be honest. one thing i said. i thought that newt's debate appearances in south carolina were so powerful was such a game changer.

romney out spent gingrich in south carolina but the difference was debate. same thing in florida. if newt showed up the way he did in south carolina in florida debates this might have been a difference race. >> but he was softball in south carolina and he was taking what was going to be very damaging interview to his campaign and he turned it on the media. in south carolina, he was red meat. he comes to florida and he didn't have the softball opportunity and romney came out swinging. >> sean: romney and romney saw what happened in south carolina and romney went to work. romney prepared for those debates. he went after newt gingrich in very aggressive way, in a way he knew he had to step up. he took gingrich off his game. up to that point he had not gone negative. gingrich was singing kumbayah

and it all caged. >> one thing, it was compressed schedule between new hampshire and south carolina. so the debates which were right at the bookend two of them, they had much greater impact on much smaller state. had you two debates in smaller period of time. >> i don't think it had the kind of potential to be a game changer in florida which is really five states when you think about it. >> sean: here is what happened, we keep hearing the romney campaign spent a lot in debate prep. they hired a debate coach. newt gingrich i think he did the interview to michael barone he said his prep for debate show up he has a great debate. >>.

>> sean: i want somebody to clobber obama in the debate. >> at the end of the day. that would be great. but you want someone who can govern, provide real solutions and can lead the state. i agree. >> bob: i'm sorry. as democrat looking into the republicans looking how debates can dominate the process. it has changed. two things that changed. super pacs we haven't seen before. >> sean: one other debate. i'm not going to let my youth, age and inexperience. >> bob: i could give it to you exactly. i voted for that 20 years. reagan says i'm not going to make my opponents youth